Jodie Whittaker’s casting as the first-ever female Doctor Who was one of TV’s best-kept secrets – for an impressive five months – until it was officially announced on 16 July.

Indeed, when TV Magazine went to meet the actress back in June at an exclusive preview of the BBC’s gripping psychological thriller Trust Me, she was keeping very tight-lipped about her huge new role as the Time Lord.

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Trust Me: Cath (Jodie) finds her friend Ally’s discarded employment paperwork while drunk and decides to steal her identity and start a new life

“I’m not doing anything at the moment,” claimed Jodie when we wondered what was next on her agenda after the lead role in Trust Me.

“I should play it really cool and be like: ‘I’m doing this, this and this.’ But you know what? I’m not doing ’owt.

“I can’t be bothered to be sneaky or tactical about it. I’m not naive, I’m very lucky that I’ve worked for the last year solidly. So I’m taking a well-earned couple of months off.”

It turns out Jodie had only let the truth slip to one person after landing the coveted role: her husband, American actor Christian Contreras.

Naturally, TV Magazine is thrilled by the casting of a woman in the role and can forgive her little white lie. It’s possible that we won’t even see her as the 13th incarnation of the Doctor until autumn 2018, as she’s said to start filming next year, so she truly is “taking a couple of months off”.

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Trust Me: Jodie watched 24 Hours in A&E to prepare for the role

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Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker in a new role which sees her playing a nurse pretending to be a doctor

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Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker stars in new BBC drama Trust Me, but what is it about?

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Jodie Whittaker revealed as the first female Doctor Who - but the Dalektable Broadchurch star's career so far has been anything but family friendly

But first, the Broadchurch star will appear in BBC1’s dark four-part drama as Cath Hardacre – a ward sister in a fictional Sheffield hospital who blows the whistle on the institution’s appalling practices and neglect of patients.

But when her well-meaning deed backfires and she’s informed that there have been complaints of bullying made against her, she is suspended from her role pending a formal investigation.

Disillusioned and in serious need of cash to support her young daughter Molly, Cath takes the drastic step of stealing the identity of her best friend, Dr Ally Sutton, who moves to New Zealand. The identity swap lands her a job as a middle-grade doctor in the emergency department of an Edinburgh hospital. But has she got herself in too deep?

“It really fascinated me that we could easily judge Cath or have taken the moral high-ground route as she’s a whistle-blower, but it’s a much more blurred line,” explains Jodie, 35. “It’s a morally dubious thing to do, but there’s also good intention there, which makes it complicated. It was very exciting to play.”

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The BBC’s unveiling of Jodie as the Doctor has received more than 16 million views online

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the drama is that, according to writer Dan Sefton – who is also a senior emergency doctor – imposter medics such as Cath aren’t as uncommon as you might believe.

“I’ve been saying: ‘This is a drama, we’re not making a documentary,’ and then Dan says: ‘It happens!’” reveals Jodie.

“But the one thing I’m conscious about is that this is a story.

"The NHS is a precious thing to me and I think we’ve got to allow ourselves to tell stories within it without saying: ‘This is what we’re saying about the NHS.’ It’s not.

It’s an environment that’s perfect for drama.”

Playing somebody who’s professing to be someone else certainly provided its challenges for Jodie.

“I had to make sure I wasn’t super-competent at playing pretend,” she laughs.

“It was important not to make the other characters look stupid. It had to be that the core medical team Ally works with all the time don’t appear to be missing huge red flags. That’s why it’s important to see what’s going on in her head, because she’s the only one who knows the truth.”

Added to the complicated character scenario, Jodie had to learn how to do medical stitches, administer CPR and manipulate bones.

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The BBC’s unveiling of Jodie as the Doctor has received more than 16 million views online

“Learning to do stitches is really hard. I was just sat all morning with this piece of prosthetic flesh, but you can’t practise too many times because you’ll split the edges,” explains Jodie.

“Emergency doctors have to think on their feet and do their best in the moment.

"I now know that you have to hurt someone to do CPR, I didn’t realise how violent it is. We had to film it by pushing down on the bed because you could break someone’s ribs. I’m not a clear-headed person and in a drama, I’d go for drama. There’s a reason why I’m an actress, not a doctor!”

In the opening episode, ‘Ally’ is overwhelmed by the death of a six-year-old girl who’s brought in after a car accident. Her tearful reaction threatens to give her away, but Jodie insists it’s not unusual for medical staff to let their emotions get the better of them sometimes.

“My opening question to every medical consultant was: ‘Do you ever cry at work?’ and all of them said yes,” she says. “They deal with horrendous and sad situations. But sometimes the situation is hopeful and uplifting because people come in on the brink of death and they can be the person that changes the outcome.”

To make her performance as true to life as possible, writer Dan suggested to Jodie that she watch the documentary series 24 Hours In A&E, as it’s the most accurate depiction of a working emergency department.

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Karl Blake Harrison - Cath’s ex Karl turned to alcohol after he lost his job, which was the catalyst for their split, but is desperate to make amends

“It’s real people, real scenarios,” says Jodie, “so everyone talks how they would whether it’s someone who’s been flown in by helicopter or a kid who’s swallowed a penny.”

Between filming harrowing scenes – there’s a distressing moment in a later episode where ‘Ally’ has to treat burns victims – Jodie and five-year-old actress Summer Mason, who plays Molly, sang Disney songs to lighten the mood.

“Summer knows every Disney song, but I was quite big competition,” says Jodie, who has never revealed the name of her own two-year-old daughter to the media. “I can wholeheartedly say she’s my favourite child I’ve ever worked with. She’s addictive to be around.”

As the show’s lead, Jodie gets a lot of screen time and admits she sometimes finds it a little uncomfortable to watch herself on TV.

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Trust Me: Jodie says she learnt a lot about the medical world whilst making the show

“It’s a pretty intense hour of watching yourself from every f***ing angle!” she laughs. “There’s no hiding there and no thinking you look a certain way. Also, I’m working in my own accent, which I haven’t done for ages.

"I’m like: ‘I’m really northern!’”

Jodie’s roles in Trust Me, the upcoming boxing movie Journeyman and, of course, Doctor Who come on the back of her part as bereaved mother Beth Latimer in all three series of ITV drama Broadchurch.

“I think because I’m older, Broadchurch resonates more,” she says. “Broadchurch was one of the most special times I’ve ever had.

I’ve made close friends for life. I’d have been devastated not to have been in the third one, but I’d have understood if Chris [Chibnall, the show’s writer] felt the Latimer storyline had come to an end.